The Chinese government has increased its solar energy target for 2015 by 50 percent, setting a new goal of 15 gigawatts annually, state media reports.
The new target, which was reported by China National Radio, follows a rapid surge in Chinese solar power installation in recent months after the government unified grid feed-in tariffs for solar projects in July.
At the end of 2010, installed solar capacity in China was less than one gigawatt. But China, the world’s top exporter of photovoltaic products, had already doubled its solar energy target to 10 gigawatts by 2015 following the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan, and the government now has boosted that goal to 15 gigawatts.
Meanwhile, a new industry report shows that U.S. solar installations jumped by nearly 40 percent during the third quarter of 2011, pushing the nation’s total annual installation beyond one gigawatt for the first time.
Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.
